Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Wii) Preview

Posted by Jon Seddon on 09.08.2009

What does Modern Warfare look and play like on Wii? Recently, we got a chance to find out.

When Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was unveiled for Wii at Gamescom, I almost thought I'd got it wrong and surely this was Modern Warfare 2. Hadn't this been released on Wii two years ago? When I checked back it obviously hadn't and so because Infinity Ward either don't have the manpower or don't want to, Treyarch have been drafted to give Wii owners a Modern Warfare experience this holiday season.



The first thing I want to make clear about what I saw was that Treyarch have done a very good job of making the Wii version look very much like the 360 and PS3 versions. The the fact that Modern Warfare was originally made in a resolution below 720P, but even so, sat on couch a decent distance from the LCD, it looks pretty good. Compared to World at War the texture quality has been improved and the particle effects have also seen some work.

Treyarch were keen to tell us that the game is contentwise complete when compared to the HD consoles, including all of the single and the multi-player content. Apparently, they had to leave some stuff out of World at War, which is why that's relevant.

The demo level they showed us was the one in which you try and pick up Zakhaev's son at a disused gas station. From memory, every single aspect of the original has been included here. The only real difference being a noticeable drop in the geometry of objects (cars with less than circular wheels) and the particle effects, which looked much less realistic. I did notice that animations sometimes looked a little odd, which seemed to contrast with my memory ogf playing on 360, where I thought it was one of the noticeable features of the engine. Sound quality will also be slightly reduced as it will be Dolby Pro Logic rather than Digital 5.1, but most people won't notice the difference.



Gesture controls do feature, but not too heavily. You shake the Nunchuck to reload and also there's a bit of shaking when you are attacked by dogs. Thankfully, you don't have to make exaggerated throwing gestures when using grenades.

Like all Wii shooters the gun moves all over the screen as you move the pointer, but with the level of control customisation on offer, there shouldn't be a problem getting something you're comfortable with. I just hope that the default settings are good as I hate messing around trying to tune my aim.

There was one new feature, which was co-op play, but before you get excited this is where you have a separate reticule on screen and all your partner does is aim and shoot. For them they are effectively playing an on-rails shooter where your driving the train. Some people go for that type of thing, but it's not something I'd use.

Multi-player will have all of the same modes as the original game with a limit of 10 players online, which is an increase from the 8 seen in World at War. The game now features host migration, meaning that if the host leaves the game continues transferring hosting duties to another player. One big omission though is a lack of support for Wii Speak, but perhaps for the casual crowd this won't be an issue.

Treyarch then are delivering the full Modern Warfare experience and whilst there's nothing new for people that have played through it already, for everyone else this could be the best shooter on Wii.

Screenshots
All 6 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Wii Screenshots